The Royal Palace of Caserta is often compared with Versailles, but its story is larger than a royal residence. North of Naples, the Reggia was conceived as the centre of a Bourbon project that joined a palace, formal park, English Garden, woodland, water infrastructure and the silk-working community of San Leucio. UNESCO inscribed the connected property in 1997. Seeing it as a planned landscape, rather than a checklist of rooms and fountains, helps explain both the scale of the undertaking and its Enlightenment ambition.
Charles of Bourbon wanted a royal seat that could rival the great courts of Europe and provide an administrative centre for his kingdom. Architect Luigi Vanvitelli developed the plan in the second half of the eighteenth century. Construction began in 1752, and the design connected the palace to gardens and an immense water axis. The project was not simply a copy of another court: its scale, relation to the surrounding terrain and combination of royal, administrative and productive functions made it a statement about Bourbon government.
